Facilitating Circular Economy in Urban Planning

Abstract

A shift towards a more Circular Economy is crucial to achieve a more sustainable and inclusive built environment that meets future demands. Circular Economy is a promising concept for industry and society. If implemented well, Circular Economy can deliver environmental benefits and economic advantages for which innovation is essential. To achieve a resource-efficient built environment the Circular Economy should be developed and implemented systemically and on a large scale, going beyond cities. To realise this, local authorities, citizens, and other stakeholders need a collaborative and science-informed decision environment that allows for developing different waste and resource management options, and assessing their impacts on the environment, resilience, spatial quality and quality of life. The articles in this special issue all discuss different aspects of research to deliver solutions and strategies for a circular economy in urban planning throughout Europe, focusing on peri-urban locations. The first rticle introduces Living Labs as a methodology to co-create circular solutions and strategies with local stakeholders. The second article focuses on governance for the shift towards a Circular Economy, unravelling hindrances and revealing objectives, whereas the third article develops a means to transfer circular strategies and solutions from one location to another. The fourth article presents an open-source tool based on the geodesign approach which links the co-creation of design proposals to impact simulations informed by geographic contexts, systems thinking, and digital technology—the Geodesign Decision Support Environment. Finally, the fifth article presents the first results of incorporating the concept of Circular Economy in an integrative manner in urban design and planning courses.

Impact of University Campus Design on Local Urban Development and Sprawl: A Case Study Analysis of Albaha University, Saudi Arabia

“…One of the methods used to assess the efficiency of buildings in terms of environmental criteria as well as cost and embodied energy is the environmental assessment approach that is used in the designing stage [38,39].…”

The Role of Urban Manufacturing for a Circular Economy in Cities

“…Waste collected at the city scale is at a large enough quantity to justify harnessing through urban mining [25]. The topic of "circular cities" has emerged recently, including research reports on circular cities published by municipalities [26][27][28], and academic papers [29][30][31].…”

The Importance of the Participatory Dimension in Urban Resilience Improvement Processes

“…This concept broadens the approach related to efficiency and effectiveness in resource management and applies it in greater detail to the field of environmental sustainability, insofar as it is intrinsically related to the closure of material cycles. In terms of the social field studied here, the aspects that may bear a direct relationship to the concept of the circular economy are those that are closely linked to citizen management and community [21] as a space for mutual cooperation and the sharing of goods and services. For example, some networks based on the circular economy [22] have developed their own type of currency that is used in very controlled and relatively small local areas and has had fairly positive results, although very few scientific data are available.…”